Newsmakers the Week of Feb. 27, 2014

February 26, 2014

Josh Shapiro, chairman of the board of Montgomery County Commissioners and a former Pennsylvania state representative, has been voted vice chairman of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority.

Marcia S. Littell is serving as vice president of the 44th annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches on March 8 in Los Angeles. Featuring more than 70 presenters, the conference has a theme of “Remembering for the Future: Armenia, Auschwitz and Beyond.” Among many other credits, Littell is professor and founder of the M.A. program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Rachel Adler, a senior at Abington Friends School, has been chosen a semifinalist for the United States Presidential Scholars Program, a highly selective program feting some of the country’s high school seniors who excel in academics. The selection, based on either SAT or ACT scores, is by invitation only.

George Blank of New Hope, Pa., has been named to the board of Friends of Yemin Orde Youth Village, which does fundraising for the village as well as its educational initiatives in Israel. The village, located outside of Haifa, provides emotional support and sustenance for Israeli youth in need. To honor his golden wedding anniversary with his wife, Harriet, Blank funded the rebuilding of the village’s wildfire-damaged Golda Meir Children’s Home.

Music entrepreneur Larry Magid and longtime Philadelphia Museum of Art activist Marsha Rothman have been added to the board of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Jeffrey Dashevsky of the law firm of Dashevsky, Horwitz, Kuhn & Novello, P.C, has been named to the board of governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Attorney Andrew Laver of Duane Morris LLP has been chosen as board president of the area chapter of the Legal Marketing Association.

Composer Michael Bihovsky’s One Grain More, a send-up of Les Miserables’ One Day More — here focusing on food allergies — has been chosen by the 2014 Faux Film Festival in Portland, Ore., for its parody music video section. Bihovsky is orignally from Wynnewood and is a graduate of Akiba Hebrew Academy, now known as the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy.

Founder of JustLaws, described as a government relations and community empowerment law firm, Steve Masters has been voted a board member of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia.

Dick Goldberg, director of Philadelphia Coming of Age as well as the national organization, which matches boomers age 50+ with agencies in need of volunteers, was one of the speakers at the recent seventh annual International Conference on Positive Aging in Sarasota, Fla. Goldberg’s background includes projects as a playwright and TV and film writer.